Suchergebnisse

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was designed to promote equal employment opportunities for handicapped individuals in the workplace. The law mandates that employers reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities who are qualified to perform the job. However, employers are exempted from this requirement if the reasonable accommodation results in an undue hardship for the organization. The legal definitions of reasonable accommodation and undue hardship have evolved over time due to case law resulting from judicial decisions. This paper will review recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and their effect on employer responsibilities under the ADA. Suggestions will be provided as to policies organizations could follow to respond to these requirements.

Women have only recently begun to join the ranks of managers in large numbers. The emergence of women into the work force has precipitated many discussions. This paper discusses some of the major issues surrounding women in management and proposes some organizational and individual responses to better utilize the diversity of skills and talents available within the work force.

Problems have resulted from the novel situation in the U.S. society where more and more parents are working, leaving them with less time and energy during the period surrounding the birth and early growth of a new infant. This issue has received considerable attention from both the private and public sectors. An increasing number of progressive companies have been proactive in offering paid and unpaid family leaves as part of their employees' benefit package. On February 5, 1993, President Clinton signed a bill into law granting up to a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12 month period to cope with a family sickness, childbirth or adoption. This paper discusses the history of family leaves and the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) along with its provisions and implications. The FMLA is just a first step for the U.S. as other countries provide paid family leave with varying percentages of pay compared to the U.S. Examples of leave policies around the world are examined.

Today's information system function includes a large service component. Recent research has examined the SERVQUAL instrument as a possible measure to assist managers and researchers in evaluating service quality. To further examine the appropriateness of the SERVQUAL measure, a large industry sample serves to verify the anticipated structure of the instrument. In addition, a high correlation with a common measure of user satisfaction indicates that the SERVQUAL metric may indeed represent accurate views of user perception. As such, the SERVQUAL instrument can serve as a useful indicator for information system managers attempting to identify areas of needed service improvement and to researchers seeking a success measure of information system services.

Many employers are unwittingly violating a U.S. Department of Labor pay rule, and they could pay a high price as a result. In fact, U.S. companies could owe as much as $39 billion in back pay. The rule on overtime compensation has been in effect since 1954, but it has come to the fore, mostly in economically painful ways, because of a handful of recent court decisions and increased Labor Department enforcement action against companies. The rule states that employers must pay hourly employees at one-and-a-half times their hourly rate for each hour over 40 they work in a week. Employers are not required to pay overtime to employees who are paid on a salary basis and who meet certain requirements related to duties. However, employers often don't know which employees qualify for overtime, when to pay it, or whether to pay time and a half or compensatory time. In fact, violations are so common that some estimate that workers would get an additional $19 billion a year if the rules were observed. Perhaps it's time to revisit the provisions and interpretations of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

Although the grapevine is an inevitable part of organizational behavior, we know very little about how managers perceive the characteristics and functioning of this informal communication network. A survey was developed to examine managers' perceptions of the factors associated with grapevine activity. Of particular interest was to determine the extent managers' positions within the organization affects their perceptions of grapevine activity. The results demonstrate that 92.4% of companies surveyed had no policy to deal with the grapevine, and managers and organizations usually didn't take an active role in managing/controlling informal communication networks. The results also indicated that the managers' level of knowledge about grapevine characteristics, causes, and outcomes was affected by their organizational position. Finally, specific conditions are discussed that impact grapevine activity.

Historically, women have been paid less than men. This pay disparity between men and women exists even when women hold similar jobs and are comparable to men with regard to seniority and experience. The goal of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was to change this situation. The Equal Pay Act states that men and women should receive the same pay for equal work. Three decades have passed but women's wages remain less than wages for men in equal positions. The focus of this paper is a discussion of the Equal Pay Act on wage differentials between men and women. Strategies will be presented that organizations can follow to minimize compensation disparities.